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Royal Ballerinas up for Auction

Photographs of the Royal Danish Ballet from the acclaimed exhibition “The Essence of Ballet” by fine art photographer Ingrid Bugge will go under the hammer at a special auction in December.

For two years, the Danish fine art photographer Ingrid Bugge followed the elegant dancers of the Royal Danish Ballet. The result this spring included both an impressive art book as well as the highly acclaimed exhibition at Silkeborg Bad. All the works from the exhibition will now be on sale at a special auction on 9 December. The pieces have their own photographic expression entirely and are not just one-to-one representations of ballerinas pirouetting.

Subjects in Motion, Painted Expression

Powerful grace and impressive lightness is to many people part of the essence of ballet – as are the narrative movements. How can one even represent this in a single shot? Ingrid Bugge has in her own fascinating way captured the light, graceful movements in her photographs of the Royal Danish Ballet. Several of the photographs have an almost painted expression inspired by, among others, Leonardo da Vinci and Edgar Degas. Others look like modern day versions of silver coloured ambrotypes, a classic photographic technique from the 1800s using very strong black and white tones.

Tutu Flowers and Decoupage Photography

Bugge has again and again captured the ballerinas’ delicate tutus in motion and transformed them into flower-like rosettes on a ballerina stem, and she has interpreted the dark and light elements of the classical romantic ballet performances through the use of black and white contrasts and the negative technique. She has ”repainted” the narrative movements with her camera, making the figures seem like they have been captured in mid-flickering motion. And this has also been Bugge’s intention with the photographic layered decoupage technique.

Preview and Auction

The auction presents 38 photographs in varied formats and expressions, which were taken during more than 10 different performances at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen – from ‘Enetime’ to ‘La Bayadere’.

During the preview for the international auction in Bredgade (No. 853), Ingrid Bugge will give ‘an artist talk’, where she will present a couple of her pieces and talk about working with the ballet ensemble and the photographic material. This takes place on Sunday 23 November at 2 pm. The preview of all Bugge’s works up for auction takes place at Baltikavej 10, 2150 Nordhavn on 8-9 December. The photographs will go under the hammer on Tuesday 9 December at bruun-rasmussen.com at 6 pm, but you can already now place your bid. View all items

Photographs at Auction

Besides the auction of Ingrid Bugge’s works, we will be presenting a number of fine art photographs at the auction of modern art in Bredgade on 9 December as well as at our online auction on 2 December. More information about these auctions is available on bruun-rasmussen.com